Khao San is not short of places to eat. That is the problem. You walk fifty metres and twenty menus get pushed at you, most of them showing the same photographs of the same pad thai, and by the third evening you want something that is not that.
We have been on the corner of Chakrabongse Road since 1982, from back when this end of the old town was guesthouses and very little else. So take this as a biased guide. It is an honest one, though, about what is actually around here and when you would want it.
If you want it cheap and you want it now
The street carts are the best value in the neighbourhood and they always will be. Forty to sixty baht, eaten standing up, finished in ten minutes. Nobody needs a blog post to find them. Walk out of your guesthouse and turn either way.
What the carts cannot do is let you sit. If you are carrying a bag, or you want to charge a phone, or it has started raining, you want walls.
If you want to sit down for an hour
This is where Khao San thins out faster than people expect. There are plenty of bars that also serve food. There are fewer places built around the cooking.
Our answer to that is hummus. A plate is 160 baht, it comes with warm pita, and we have made it every day for forty years. If you are properly hungry, order the falafel plate at 250 instead: falafel, hummus, Israeli salad, chips. That is the plate that built this restaurant and it is still the one that leaves the kitchen most often.
If you are vegetarian
Khao San is harder on vegetarians than it first looks. A lot of what reads as meat free has fish sauce in it, and asking sometimes gets you a confident yes that turns out to mean something else.
Falafel is the easy answer. So is hummus, tehina, eggplant salad, Israeli salad, and shakshuka at 210 baht, which is eggs poached in tomato and pepper. None of that has been adapted for anybody. It is just how the food is made.
If it is late and you have only just landed
Our kitchen runs until 23:00, seven days a week. When you are tired, order melawach. It is Yemenite flaky bread, 170 baht, and it arrives with grated tomato and a hard boiled egg. Closest thing on the menu to being looked after.
If you want something bigger at that hour, the chicken schnitzel plate is 260 and the chicken shawarma is 240.
If you would rather not leave the room
We deliver from 10:30 in the morning until 20:00. Call 02-282-9948 or 084-942-6954. Anywhere around Khao San, Rambuttri and Phra Athit is fine.
One thing worth knowing: delivery stops at 20:00 but the restaurant stays open until 23:00. If it is half past nine and you want hummus, you are welcome to come and get it, but nobody is bringing it to you.
Where we are
86 Chakrabongse Road, Talat Yot, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200. A few minutes on foot from the middle of Khao San, on the corner. Open every day, 10:30 to 23:00. You do not need to book.
Come hungry. The plates are bigger than they look in the photographs.